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I had always wanted to write a book – and in 2009, I got serious about it. It took me two years to sign a contract and another two for my first book to come out (Reinventing You in 2013), but here’s what I learned in the process about how to build a strong platform and land a (nonfiction) book deal. I’m now on my second book, Stand Out, which was just released in April.

Long, long ago in a United Kingdom far away, a thirteen-year-old girl (a thoroughly unpleasant age for all involved) prepared for a weeklong skiing holiday in Austria (as you do). She asked her mother, who was staying behind in London (already giddy with the prospect of solitude and books, books, books):

Four books arrived in the mail last week. I need new books because I’m going to spend Thanksgiving with my grandkids in California. Since I hate airplane travel, I never look forward to this biannual trip, although it does oblige me to sit still for five hours straight, the perfect opportunity to catch up on reading. I slit the cellophane wrap with a kitchen knife and lift out the precious volumes chosen for Los Angeles, 2013.